Melbourne Hotel: 10 Browning St, West End QLD (07) 3840 9888 or www.themelbournehotel.com.au Melbourne Hotel, in Brisbane’s West End, has been transformed from a tired hotel into a modern venue with a considerable breadth of offerings. It has The Office — an all-day dining area; an upstairs wine bar called Twelve; Tempted café and deli;
Bells at Killcare: 107 The Scenic Road, Killcare Heights NSW www.bellsatkillcare.com.au Up the Pacific Highway from Sydney you’ll discover a touch of Provence on the Central Coast. Or perhaps it’s more Fred Perry-era All-England (croquet anyone?); or even a beach ‘shack’ in the Hamptons — not that I’ve ever been, but I watch a lot
Grand Hotel Rockdale: 482 – 484 Princes Highway, Rockdale NSW (02) 9567 2493 or www.grandhotelrockdale.com.au The Grand Hotel has been trying to follow the changing styles of Sydney and its local patrons for the last 25 years. Southern Hotel Group has taken the hotel through many refurbishments, including a sports bar, and at one time
Goldfish: 111 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross NSW (02) 8354 6630 Situated at Kings Cross’ ground zero is the newly refurbished Goldfish, a bar that offers a mix of music, cocktails and food in a comfortable environment with a twist. Its previous incarnation, The Goldfish Bowl, had a solid reputation in the area, and by paying
New Zealand may be the perfect setting for the fantasy genre, but when the Bacardi team needed a mobile way to spruik rum around the disconnected population, a pirate galleon wasn’t going to happen, and a space ship would have been a bit too high-flying for the average punter. In the end, the Bacardi team
Rambutan: 96 Oxford St, Darlinghurst NSW (02) 9360 7772 or www.rambutan.com.au Rambutan — inspired by a Thai fruit of the same name — has joined the new ‘Darlo’ Oxford Street strip, which is enjoying a renaissance. Husband and wife team Joe Natale and Milena Molina-Natale has between them an extensive design background in fashion and
Gingerboy Upstairs: 27–29 Crossley St, Melbourne VIC (03) 9662 4200 or www.gingerboy.com.au Teage Ezard’s Gingerboy Upstairs has been refurbished to tie in with the downstairs dining area. Still keeping with Ezard’s penchant for hawker street-style eating with more structured dining options, Gingerboy Upstairs adds another dimension. “We have designed the upstairs space as a grouping
Damask Bar: 347 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC (03) 9417 4578 or www.damaskbar.com.au Melbourne’s Brunswick Street is well-known for its Bohemian hideaways… and now there’s the first-floor Damask Bar — a hideaway, sure, but definitely a cut above in the style department. The air is good at Damask, so good, in fact, management has opened a
Riverland Bar: Vaults 1 – 9, Federation Wharf, Melbourne (03) 9662 1771 or www.riverlandbar.com The Riverland Bar’s progress has been anything but meteoric. Life began out as a single coffee bar with a handful of staff to coincide with the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in 2006. Now? The venue stretches almost 100 metres along the
Portello Rosso: 15 Warburton Lane, Melbourne, VIC (03) 9602 2273 or contact@portellorosso.com.au Photo: Corey Sleap Nestled in a laneway in the old merchant district of Melbourne’s CBD, Murmur has been quietly bubbling away for four years with positive word-of-mouth recommendations ensuring the first-floor Cuba-inspired cocktail bar happily ticks over. While Murmur built up a following,